A legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Strait of Gibraltar. The main source of legend is Plato's two dialogues, namely Timothy and Chrittia. In the previous dialogue, Plato described how Egyptian monks talked about Atlantis when talking with Solon, an Athenian lawmaker, saying that the island was bigger than Asia Minor and Libya combined, and it was similar to the pillars of Hercules (pillars? Yes? Hercules? The Strait of Gibraltar). According to monks, Atlantis was a rich island about 9000 years before Solon was born. The powerful princes on the island conquered many parts of the Mediterranean until they were finally defeated by the Athenians and their allies. Atlantis eventually became evil and ungodly. Due to several earthquakes, their island was swallowed up by the sea. In Clerides, Plato provides the history of Atlantis Utopia. ?
Atlantis may be just a legend, but medieval European writers who got the story from Arab geographers believed it, and later some writers tried to prove it clearly. For example, after the Renaissance, they tried to prove that Atlantis was America, Scandinavia and the Canary Islands. If Plato hadn't made it up, the story of Atlantis might actually reflect the ancient Egyptians' account of the volcanic eruption on Sila Island around 1500 BC. This eruption is the most amazing eruption in history, accompanied by a series of earthquakes and tsunamis, which completely destroyed the civilization of Crete and probably shaped the legend of Atlantis.
In Plato's prompt, there is such a sentence: opposite the "Heracles Strait", there is a big island, from which you can go to other islands. On the opposite side of those islands, there is a whole piece of land surrounded by the ocean, which is the kingdom of Atlantis. At that time, Atlantis was about to launch a big war with Athens. Unexpectedly, Atlantis was suddenly attacked by earthquakes and floods, and it was completely submerged at the bottom of the sea in less than a day and a night, which became an obstacle for Greeks to travel at sea.
Legend has it that Poseidon founded the kingdom of Atlantis. On an island, a girl's parents died. Poseidon married the girl and gave birth to five pairs of twins. So Poseidon divided the whole island into ten districts, ruled by ten sons respectively, and the eldest son was the supreme ruler. ? Because the eldest son is called Atlas and the country is called Atlantis.
In the acropolis in the center of the mainland, there are temples dedicated to Poseidon and his wife, and there are also temples dedicated to Poseidon. The interior of this temple is decorated with gold, silver, copper and ivory. There is a shipyard on the coast of Atlantis. The dock is crowded with three-oared warships, and the dock is full of merchant ships and businessmen from all over the world. The kingdom of Atlantis is very rich and powerful. In addition to the island's rich products, tributes from Egypt, Syria and other Mediterranean countries are also constantly flowing.
Ten kings have absolute power in their respective territories and adopt different national organizations. In order to keep communication with each other, they gather in temple of poseidon every five to six years to discuss their relationship and their ruling power. When the agreement was established, they cut the throats of the bulls fed in temple of poseidon and wrote resolutions on the pillars of temple of poseidon with their blood to increase the sanctity of the resolutions.
All ten kings are wise, and the country is rich and strong. Unfortunately, corruption soon began to appear in these countries. Zeus, the head of the gods, punished people's depravity, causing earthquakes and floods, and the kingdom of Atlantis sank to the bottom of the sea day and night.
At present, most archaeologists tend to think that Crete, located in the eastern Mediterranean, is closer to Dayu's historical and geographical conditions. 1870, German archaeologist Sheriman excavated the Mycenae site located in the northeast of the Peloponnesian Peninsula in Greece. Thirty-five years later, British archaeologist Evans excavated an earlier Crete civilization site in Crete. These two great archaeological achievements caused a sensation in the world, and people invariably associated them with the "missing" Great Western Zhou Dynasty. Many scholars believe that the existing Crete Island is only the remains of Daxie Island. Because Crete is the birthplace of ancient European civilization. The 450 years from 20th century BC to15th century was the golden age of Crete civilization, and its social economy and foreign trade were very developed. However, after four or five hundred years of prosperity, it met the fate of the mainland: "A sudden volcano, earthquake and tsunami broke out one after another, engulfing everything on the island." The development of modern volcanology has confirmed that the natural force that caused this catastrophe came from a violent volcanic eruption on santorini Island (north of Crete113km) and the huge tsunami that followed. At present, to draw an equal sign between Santorin, Crete and Daxizhou, the biggest crux lies in time and area, with a difference of nearly 80 years and 720,000 square kilometers.
Therefore, whether Atlantis exists in history is still a mystery, and archaeologists are still exploring it.
The location of Atlantis is still inconclusive. Scientists tend to be at the western end of the Mediterranean, that is, the Atlantic Ocean, because the remains have been found at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. By speculating about the return of eels and some situations in the sargasso sea, it is indeed possible that Atlantis is located, but there are still many unexplained problems.
The fall of daxizhou
Among all kinds of mysteries in the western world, nothing can arouse people's thoughts and reverie more than Oceania. This land suddenly disappeared in the distant past, and where did it go with its splendid civilization? For thousands of years, people have been looking for its trace with great interest. Scientists have written thousands of papers and monographs on this subject, covering many fields such as history, archaeology, ethnology, geography, geology, climatology, biology, etc. It has become a new science of its own-Australasia. Today, there are still different opinions about the whereabouts of Daxizhou.
1, the origin of the eternal mystery
The legend about Daxizhou was first written by Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician. He described the story of Daxizhou in detail in two famous dialogue works, Claizi and Qimaili.
This is a beautiful and rich civilized island country, located in the West Sea, west of the Strait of Gibraltar, outside the "Pillar of Hercules", with an area of 2.072 million square kilometers. There is a mild climate, dense forests, lush flowers and fruits: there are fish in the river, elephants and other animals in the forest, as well as gold, silver and shiny mountain copper that the ancients considered the most precious. This is really a happy paradise.
The capital in the center of the island is resplendent, especially the magnificent palaces and temples, all decorated with gold, silver, copper and ivory. The island also has a canal system extending in all directions, well-built bridges and busy ports day and night ... The twelve main islands of Daxie are ruled by twelve kings respectively, and the country is prosperous and the people live and work in peace and contentment. Poseidon, who is just and sacred, is regarded as the supreme master of the island country. Poseidon's laws were carved on a bronze pillar, which won the unanimous belief and admiration of the people of Oceania.
Later, the society in Oceania began to corrupt, evil replaced holiness, and natural virtue was replaced by love of money and wealth, idleness and extravagance. Finally, it even launched a war of foreign aggression in an attempt to enslave the residents east of the Gibraltar Strait. This angered Poseidon, and God was determined to severely punish those who betrayed the traditional beliefs in Oceania. Soon, disaster finally came. In a devastating earthquake and flood, the whole continent sank to the bottom of the sea in just one day and one night and disappeared into the rolling waves.
This story sounds mysterious, but Plato has repeatedly stressed that it is handed down from generation to generation, not fiction.
In order to prove the truth of this legend, Plato is said to have been to Egypt and consulted famous monks. However, Plato didn't know that it was this myth that made later generations argue endlessly for more than two thousand years.
2. A credible answer
From the point of view of modern geology, it is not surprising that things on earth have changed. Vast land can be swallowed up by the ocean, and a new land will rise in the vast ocean. Climate change, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and geological disasters such as volcanoes and earthquakes may all bring bad luck like Daxizhou. It is puzzling that the lost civilization of Daxizhou actually appeared 12000 years ago, that is, in the late Paleolithic period in human history. Is there any prehistoric civilization on earth earlier than the known ancient civilizations such as ancient Egypt and ancient India?
1870, the famous German archaeologist Suleiman excavated the site of Mycenae civilization in the northern Peloponnesus of Greece. Thirty years later, the famous British archaeologist Evans excavated an earlier Crete civilization site in Crete. The great achievements of archaeology in the past two years have sensationalized the world, and people invariably associate it with the missing Daxizhou.
Crete is located at the southern tip of the Aegean Sea, with an area of 833 1 km2, and is the largest island in the Aegean Sea. According to legend, the king here was Minos, so Evans named the ruins excavated in Crete "Minoan civilization".
The ancient people of Crete created their own culture under the influence of advanced civilizations in Egypt and West Asia. The 450 years from 20th century BC to15th century BC was the golden age of Minoan civilization. Its main relic is the famous Nosas Palace. The palace is large in scale, complex in structure, with thousands of households and twists and turns, which reminds people of the labyrinth of Minotto Ross, the personal monster who detained the bull's head in Greek mythology. Similar magnificent palaces are Festus and Hymia Triada at the southern end of the island, Maria at the northeastern end and Chakros at the eastern end.
Minos is far ahead of the times in many ways. They use complicated characters, and there are many wonderful murals and pottery paintings in the palace; Handicraft industry has reached a very high level, which can make exquisite bronze vessels, gold and silver handicrafts, and can also build strong and light sailboats, with merchant fleets all over the ancient world; They built a complicated drainage system and used water pipes to drain water. They also knew how to introduce cold air into the house to adjust the air. Minoan women have a lofty position when most other nations in the world still regard women as property. Their religion centers on worshipping a topless mother goddess of musical instruments, and many murals depict elegant portraits of women. Her gorgeous appearance showed that women were respected at that time.
Crete is sunny, life is stable and comfortable, and people love peace, which reveals a peaceful and clear atmosphere from Minos ruins. However, shortly after15th century BC, Minoan civilization in its heyday suddenly disappeared. The results of archaeological excavations show that all the cities of Minos were destroyed at the same time. All this is similar to the legendary Daxizhou.
What made the glorious Minoan civilization suddenly disappear? The progress of modern volcanology has confirmed that the natural force that caused this catastrophe came from a violent volcanic eruption on santorini Island (north of Crete 1 13km) and the huge tsunami that followed. Using radiocarbon to determine the blackened stone house remains and charred human teeth excavated in santorini Island, it is known that the volcanic eruption occurred in15th century BC.
According to scientists' research, the radiation energy released by this volcanic eruption is equivalent to 500 ~ 1000 atomic bombs exploding at the same time, which is the most violent in the history of the world. The volcanic pile standing in the middle of santorini Island, with a height of more than 65,438+0,500 meters, spewed out millions of tons of magma, and the fiery pumice fell like a raindrop boat. Volcanic ash was blown to the southeast along with Xia Feng in the eastern Mediterranean, with a scattering area of 250,000 square kilometers. The farthest point is 700 kilometers away from the volcano, and the thickest point is 100 meters. Today, a few meters thick volcanic carbon layer can be found on the seabed in the eastern Mediterranean. Huge internal pressure forced the volcano to explode, and the volcano collapsed on its own, forming a crater with a circumference of 60 kilometers. The whole island of santorini was reduced to ashes.
From this perspective, to draw an equal sign between Santorin, Crete and Oceania, the biggest crux lies in time and area, with a difference of 8,000 ~ 9,000 years, which is nearly 2 million square kilometers. Archaeologists believe that this is probably Plato's negligence. He mistook the Egyptian numeral symbol representing "one hundred" for "one thousand", thus expanding all the numbers tenfold. If an extra zero is removed, the story of Daxizhou should have happened 900 years before Soren's trip to Egypt, that is, in the15th century BC, that is, when Santorin volcano erupted. The area of Daxizhou should be 207,200 square kilometers, which is similar to that of the eastern Mediterranean island where Santorin and Crete were located at that time. The so-called "Pillar of Hercules" is said to have two promontories near the coast of Crete, Greece. The so-called West Sea is actually the Mediterranean Sea.
Moreover, it is the ancient Egyptians who know about Daxizhou best, not only because they are the initiators of the story, but also because they have close trade relations with this rich island country. According to historical records, the ancient Egyptians called merchants and sailors from a certain place in northwest Egypt (namely Crete Island) "enlightened people". When Santorin volcano erupted, northern Egypt was also deeply affected by volcanic ash and tsunami waves, which were called "Ten Disasters" in history books. This disaster left a deep impression on the ancient Egyptians, because from then on, Kaifu Xiuren, which used to come and go, suddenly disappeared, and their ships could no longer be seen in the ports of the Nile, and the rich island countries in the northwest also disappeared. Is that how the legend about Daxizhou came about?
3. Oceania is in the Atlantic Ocean.
Although people's textual research and logical speculation on Santorin and Crete have uncovered the mystery that has shrouded Oceania for a long time, there are still many people who are keen to find traces of Oceania in the Atlantic Ocean. The target is the Azores. With the development of modern science and technology, new discoveries emerge one after another, which makes the mystery of the Great Western Zhou Dynasty particularly intriguing.
If the sea water in the Atlantic Ocean is drained, it can be clearly seen that the S-shaped submarine ridge winding in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean becomes wider and wider near the Azores and becomes the Azores Plateau standing on the seabed. There are many underwater volcanoes on it, and some protrude out of the sea to become islands, such as the Azores.
The location, size and shape of this submarine plateau are similar to Plato's Oceania. The core sampling study on the seabed north of Azores Islands proves that this rock was formed in the air more than 1 10,000 years ago, because it is a glassy basalt, and it can only be formed after the lava overflowing from the crater is rapidly cooled in the air. In other words, the Azores submarine plateau was once a land. What is even more intriguing is that the photos taken by underwater photography here show the remains of ancient buildings.
It is found that European eels have a strange breeding habit. They will swim back to the south on a large scale, go through difficulties and obstacles, cross the ocean to spawn in the sargasso sea, and then follow the Gulf Stream all the way back to Europe. What is the reason?
It turns out that the sargasso sea is the hometown of European eels. In the distant past, there was a huge land near the Azores in the northeast of the sargasso sea-Daxizhou. The port there is a paradise for eels, which is not only protected from the attack of marine animals, but also brings rich bait through freshwater rivers. They used to live here for a long time and only returned to their hometown when they laid eggs. Later, Oceania sank, but the eel swam northeast along the Gulf of Mexico as always, and finally reached the rivers and streams in Europe. Of course they don't know that this is not the continent that raised them.
In Babylon, Mexico and other places on both sides of the Atlantic, there are similar legends: in ancient times, some capable people came by boat from far away places. They teach local people agricultural technology, 365-day calendar, pyramid architecture, mummification, etc., and spread religion-sun religion ... It is no wonder that the Mediterranean coast and the ancient countries of Central America, although separated by hundreds of thousands of miles of ocean, have their culture, religion, architecture and so on. Living between the old and new continents and with a high degree of civilization, does Daxizhou play a decisive role in the spread and exchange of culture? Did the East and the West develop into two cultures after the sinking of Daxi Island?
Take the pyramids for example. It has always been regarded as a symbol of ancient Egyptian civilization. In fact, many countries in the world have pyramids, such as Indian, Iranian, Sudanese, Libyan, Tunisia, Moroccan and Spanish. There are more in Mexico and Guatemala in Central America. From the map of the world, these countries are located in tropical latitudes and live on the east and west sides of Azores-Daxie; Moreover, these gold characters are exactly the same in shape and structure, and have certain kinship.
There is another interesting fact. The Basques in Spain are different from other Europeans in race or language, but they can be found on the other side of the Atlantic-some Mayans in Central America. Not only do they have the same aquiline nose and face, but according to historical records, when a Basque missionary preached in the Mayan tribe in Guatemala, he found that they could figure out the Basque semantics of the missionary. According to the description of the early Spanish colonists, the Mayan Indians in Mexico played almost exactly the same game as the Basques played in doubles squash, and they used similar shovels. Such things naturally lead people to speculate that they may have the same ancestor, that is, they are all descendants of the people of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Since 1968, amazing prehistoric civilization undersea sites have been discovered in the Bermuda Islands in the western Atlantic Ocean, as well as in the waters near the Bahamas and Florida Peninsula, which brings new excitement to western curious people who yearn for Oceania and new challenges to historians and archaeologists. For example, in the Bimini Island area of the Bahamas, people found huge stone buildings lying on the seabed. They are compact, magnificent and varied in shape. Some are like stone streets, with rectangular or polygonal stones arranged in various patterns; Some like the city wall, the elder 1600 meters, are all made of big stones; I also saw some ruins of dock and port equipment and marble statues. They can't be natural things. According to the analysis of submarine limestone near the Bahamas, it is proved that it existed in the air more than 12 thousand years ago, which means that it used to be land. Aren't all these parts of the lost civilization in Daxie?
At this point, readers may also ask: Where did Daxizhou go? Yes, Daxie is still Daxie, and many people in the world are still exploring it. It can be believed that in today's highly developed science and technology, the eternal mystery may not be far away. ?
Scientists have been arguing for a long time about the sinking position of the legendary ancient Greek Daxizhou (a big island in the Atlantic Ocean of ancient Greece, which was sunk by an earthquake): some people think that the legendary Daxizhou sank in the Aegean Sea. Others think it is buried in the Atlantic abyss near the Azores today, while others try to find it near the Celtic Mountains in Britain and the South China Sea in China. After years of quarreling, Robert Samast from California, USA, now puts forward his unique opinion: it is impossible for these three people to find the continent they think is right.
According to Robert Samast, "In fact, today's Cyprus is a part of Oceania. To be exact, the island of Cyprus is the highest peak in Oceania. This area was once the center of ancient civilization. "
According to Robert Samast, he put forward this unique viewpoint because he studied Solon's Code of Ancient Athens and Plato's works about the destruction of ancient civilization by Zeus at its peak.
He believes that the island of Cyprus is the peak of this continent that once cultivated a highly developed ancient civilization. This continent was first destroyed by the earthquake, and then was baptized by the flood more than 1000 years ago. According to more than 50 clues provided by deep-sea exploration, submarine simulation experiments and Plato's dialogues (the theme of Plato's works is dialogues and letters), Samat determined that he had successfully found this occupied continent, which also extended from Cyprus to Syria in the northeast. Samast said: "All the evidence is incredibly consistent with what Plato described in his dialogue."
According to the data collected ten years ago, Samast made a three-dimensional map showing the geographical location of Dajiao, and simulated the seabed structure map of the eastern Mediterranean. He said: "If we can lower the sea level by 1600 meters, this sinking continent will surface and reappear in front of mankind."
At present, Samat hopes to organize an expedition to further prove his idea. However, many archaeologists are still skeptical about Samat's statement at present, and think it is sheer nonsense. But Samast firmly believes that the truth of science is often not mastered by most people, and he will eventually prove it to most people with irrefutable facts. (compiled by Chen Yonghui)?
4. Unexpected discovery
Bernie Bamford, a 38-year-old aviation engineer in Chester, England, was shocked in February, 2009 to find that there is a seabed that looks like a city site at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, 620 miles from the coast of West Africa. This is probably the legendary "continent" that sank to the bottom of the sea!
Supplement: This picture is a bird's-eye view of the height of 1000 km, with a length of 166 km from east to west and 130 km from north to south, slightly rectangular. Geographical coordinates are 3 1 40 minutes north latitude (where several major civilizations in the world were born) and 24 degrees west longitude.